The Ultimate Battle Review

[Rook Jones]

So because I decided to be a Classics Completist, I went out and bought these guys.

 

 

It was a strange decision, I know. But having not been able to find Grimlock or Jetfire, I had to buy something, and the "Ultimate Battle" had been taunting me for a while. So I gave in. The set is definitely not the Classics line's strong point, and I find them to be even less defensible than those Minicons (which I reviewed in another thread).

 

I'll start with Megatron. Keeping in line with all the recent Classics figures, he's got a whole lot of sculpted detail, especially in places where you wouldn't think to look. He comes off as a more jagged version of that heavily reused Hero Megs mold we've all come to love or hate (unfortunately my Reverse Convoy was not here to refer to). Designwise he has some issues, and where I usually hesitate to mention QC stuff, I've had a slight problem with mine:

 

 

That little rod keeps flying out of the chamber it should be in, causing his Battle Blade arm to fall off. Fortunately both times this has happened I've rescued the rod before it's fallen into obscurity. Also, as many reviewers have no doubt mentioned, Megs' feet are installed backwards. The instructions show them in the correct position (however the box photography does not, curiously). It's a simple matter of unscrewing his legs and reversing the feet to acheive his correct transformation. As a third matter, the whole Battle Blade assembly is quite loose and various parts continuously fall off. Also, it looks pretty weird.

 

Despite all these problems, Megs is still a fun little figure, and as you can see he looks pretty good next to his Voyager-class self:

 

 

Which reminds me that this particular Megatron reminds of another similar guy, almost to the point where I'd like to just treat him as such and therefore add another (sorely needed) Decepticon member to my Classics army. In fact...

 

 

And we can all breath a sigh of relief that the production Megatron doesn't come with a horrible yellow splat on his face like those early photos.

 

Optimus, unlike Megatron, is not so easily defended. He's essentially a weird midpoint between Robot Masters Prime and 20th Prime, but much closer to Robot Masters (and, therefore, shoddy). The main negative of this Prime is his completely ridiculous vehicle mode. I'm not sure how a Transformer whose main image is a chest shaped like a truck can manage to transform into something so vastly unlike a truck. This rather unsettling habit seems to have taken form in a few other recent G1-style Primes (Robot Masters and THS-02, for example, though I own and enjoy THS-02). His "action feature," a spinning punch which reminds me fondly of Sy-Klone, but having little to do with Optimus Prime, is also somewhat flimsy and there have been reports of it breaking immediately. Amongst all this half-baked-ness, there are a few rays of light, such as excellent poseability and detail, but mainly...

 

 

A TOMMY GUN! I'd like to find whoever it was that designed this Prime's gun and shake his hand, even though Prime and Thompson Submachineguns go together about as well as kerosene and gatorade, that doesn't make it any less awesome. Also, in truck mode, the tommy gun goes through an interesting transformation to become a gun turret too small for any figure to operate. But wait! There are some figures small enough!

 

 

Turns out there is a reason Minicons were made for Classics. The tommy gun is also gleefully compatible with the other Classics figures...

 

 

And since it fits in the hand of any of the Classics figures with the standard-size fist holes, it will fit with any Transformers figure from Armada-onwards. So can I justify paying $20 for a fairly good Megatron/Megastorm, a downright shoddy prime, and an awesome tommy gun? Well, no, but it comes with a DVD too!

 

Actually the DVD isn't really that hot. Mainly what it showed me, though various spliced-together scenes from Armada, Energon, and Cybertron, is how much I can't wait for a Western-produced Transformers show. They were fun, guys, but enough's enough.

 

So that's the Ultimate Battle. The verdict is COMPLETIONISTS ONLY.

 

And because it's Christmas, here's a bonus image of the Decepticons enjoying the season (click to enlarge).

 

[Deadpool]

Best Pic is Prime with hat & tommy gun! :tflaugh :tflaugh1 :tflaugh

[Maximo Prime]

excellent review. Sweet pimp hat.

[C - 310]

OMG, you gave Bumble Bee the same hand gun I did~ (great men think alike hehehe)

 

Anyways, I was horrified at this Prime's alt mode. It's good that I missed this set then~

[Greensight]

Though they're made of dubainium steel. So they shouldn't break.

[Bumblerod]

great review dude, your photo stories are awesome keep it up !!! :)

[masterminicon]

I don't have the problem with the pin in Megs that you seem to have.

 

Also, the TF Wiki I can't stand the captions on the pics. They kind of demean the characters and stuff in my opinion, or the pics are so ridiculous. There had to have been a more menacing looking pic of BWII Megastorm than that.

 

IMO, the guy is a TF Fan with a very stupid sense of humor (and I don't mean stupid as in ha ha stupid, but stupid as in brainless stupid).

[Maximo Prime]

I don't have the problem with the pin in Megs that you seem to have.

 

Also, the TF Wiki I can't stand the captions on the pics. They kind of demean the characters and stuff in my opinion, or the pics are so ridiculous. There had to have been a more menacing looking pic of BWII Megastorm than that.

I dunno, there were a lot of silly moments in that series...

IMO, the guy is a TF Fan with a very stupid sense of humor (and I don't mean stupid as in ha ha stupid, but stupid as in brainless stupid).

[Rook Jones]

Also, the TF Wiki I can't stand the captions on the pics. They kind of demean the characters and stuff in my opinion, or the pics are so ridiculous. There had to have been a more menacing looking pic of BWII Megastorm than that.

 

IMO, the guy is a TF Fan with a very stupid sense of humor (and I don't mean stupid as in ha ha stupid, but stupid as in brainless stupid).

 

I actually quite enjoy the silly captions. I'm a pretty big fan of Transformers, but I don't believe they're so infallible that I can't laugh at how ridiculous they are sometimes.

 

And Megastorm was pretty ridiculous.

 

By the way, be careful, I've actually added a few of the captions myself (at least one, anyway).

[Radioactive Ravage]

I'd get it just to give Bumblebee a decent weapon. Autobot Spy, my ass.

 

So, Megatron could be Megastorm, and Prime could just... go die. Seriously, that vehicle mode is so revealing...!